1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an Internet telephone system for connecting a telephone via an access point apparatus to the Internet, and an access point apparatus, and further to a communication system using a broad-range data communication network with the access point apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, Internet telephone systems utilizing the Internet have been developed. A conventional Internet telephone system will now be described.
In a general-purpose public telephone system, a telephone of a telephone caller is connected to a telephone of a called party or counter party by using a telephone switching unit owned (for example) by Nippon Telephone and Telegram company (NTT). In an Internet telephone system, an Internet telephone caller is connected from a telephone line of a public telephone network to an access point (namely, a connection point) of an Internet service provider or Internet connection party (provider), and then speech data is transmitted from this access point via the Internet to another access point where an Internet telephone counter party is present (namely, an access point of the Internet telephone counter party). Speech is sent from the access point of the Internet telephone counter party via the public telephone network to a telephone of this Internet telephone counter party. In other words, the function of the telephone switching unit is realized by the access point apparatus of the Internet connection party. Then, in the access point apparatus of this Internet connection party, a so-called xe2x80x9cidentificationxe2x80x9d process operation is required which identifies as to whether or not a telephone caller who accesses the access point apparatus is an authorized user.
FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram for indicating an access point apparatus employed in a conventional Internet telephone system. FIG. 5 is a structural diagram for schematically indicating an Internet telephone system with employment of the conventional access point apparatus. In FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 shows a telephone line of a public telephone network 1xe2x80x2, reference numeral 2 represents a network interface unit equal to an interface with the telephone line, reference numeral 3 indicates a reception control unit for controlling the telephone line 1, and reference numeral 4 denotes a user data detecting unit for separating user data from system data. The public telephone network includes switching units, one of which is designated by reference numeral 20. Also, reference numeral 6 is an individual identifying unit for identifying whether or not a telephone connection request is issued from an authorized user, reference numeral 7 shows an individual identification data detecting unit for detecting individual identification data, reference numeral 8 represents an output unit equal to an interface with the Internet 9, reference numeral 10A denotes an access point apparatus arranged by a connecting apparatus 12, and a user ID identifying unit 13, and also reference numeral 11 shows a telephone. It should be understood that the connecting apparatus 12 shown in FIG. 5 is constructed of the structural elements 2 to 4, 7, and 8, whereas the user ID identifying unit 13 is constituted by the individual identifying unit 6.
A description will now be made of operations as to the conventional Internet telephone system with employment of the above-described arrangement.
First, a telephone call issued from a user (telephone call issued from telephone 11) is connected via the public telephone network 1xe2x80x2 to the access point apparatus 10A of the Internet connection party. After the access point connection, a connection sequence for a data communication is carried out in accordance with a communication protocol known as PPP (Point to Point Protocol). The individual identification is carried out in this data communication connection sequence. That is, both a character stream known as a xe2x80x9cuser IDxe2x80x9d, made of alphanumeric characters allocated to each of the users, and another character stream known as a xe2x80x9cpasswordxe2x80x9d, made of alphanumeric characters allocated to each of the users, are transmitted as user data from the user (telephone 11) to the connecting apparatus 12 of the access point apparatus 10A. The data received via the network interface unit 2 of the connecting apparatus 12 is inputted from the reception control unit 3 to the user data detecting unit 4 so as to be separated into the system data and the user data. Then, only the user data is sent to the individual identification data detecting unit 7. In the individual identification data detecting unit 7, the inputted user data is separated into the user ID, the password, and other data. Other data is sent to the output unit 8, whereas both the user ID and the password are sent to the individual identifying unit 6. In the individual identifying unit 6, the user IDs and the passwords of the users have been stored in a database. This individual identifying unit 6 judges as to whether or not the received user ID and password are equal to a registered user ID and password. If both the received user ID and password coincide with a registered user ID and password, it is judged that this user is an authorized user. If this user ID is not registered, or both the received user ID and password do not coincide with a registered user ID and password, then it is judged that this user is not an authorized user. Then, the advances operation is advanced to an error processing operation.
However, the above-described conventional Internet telephone system has the following problem. That is, when the Internet telephone system is utilized from a general home telephone, the user is required to manage or enter the user""s ID and password, which are employed in order to judge as to whether or not a telephone counter party who accesses to the access point apparatus 10A is an authorized telephone user who has made a contract.
In this Internet telephone system, even when the user ID and the password are not managed by the user, such a requirement is made, by which a judgement is made as to whether or not the telephone user is an authorized user (namely, telephone user who has made contract).
The present invention has as an object to provide an Internet telephone system capable of judging as to whether or not a telephone user corresponds to an authorized telephone user even when the user does not manage a user ID and a password.
To achieve the above-described object, an Internet telephone system, according to an aspect of the present invention, is featured by that in an Internet telephone system for connecting a telephone via a telephone line of a telephone network and an access point apparatus to the Internet, the access point apparatus is comprised of: a network interface unit functioning as an interface with the telephone line; a reception control unit for controlling the telephone line;
a user data detecting unit for detecting user data and system data to thereby separate the user data from the system data; a calling telephone number detecting unit for detecting a calling telephone number sent via the telephone line to thereby recognize a telephone number of a telephone caller; an individual identifying unit for determining whether or not a telephone connection request is issued from an authorized telephone user on the basis of a detection result made by the calling telephone number detecting unit; and an output unit functioning as an interface with the Internet.
As a consequence, it is possible to accomplish such an Internet telephone system capable of judging as to whether or not the telephone user is equal to an authorized telephone user, even though the user need not manage the user ID and the password.